Why Jackson's death is a challenge to his media stalkers

The instantaneous media has big problems with stories which contain ambiguity. For instance, they know how to report the death of someone "good", or someone "bad". But the sudden departure of the most talented entertainer in a century, tortured as he was by his own childhood and by the media, is presenting the hacks with a considerable challenge.

None more so than Martin Bashir, the inscrutable ABC Nightline Host, who was tasked tonight with delivering the network "tribute" to a 50-year-old man whose death left many friends in tears in my local bar.

A few years ago, a British commercial TV investigator out for a sensational headline, Bashir bluffed his way into the Jackson compound to make a documentary with a bad taste approach and style matched only by the horrid nature of the allegations themselves. His strategy was to lure the performer into a compliant on-camera friendship over a period of several days hospitality at the ranch, in the hope that Jackson would incriminate himself in his alleged abuses of children.

You might be concerned that Bashir hadn't demonstrated the right sort of balanced view of Jackson necessary to present tonight's ABC Show, but think again.

Although the allegations in his "documentary" were never proven, Bashir was there tonight in a new mask, talking about the Jackson family press conference on ABC News as "understandably emotional." And tonight's show was as inconclusive as only "The Mouse" versus Disney News can muster. Reinforcing, perhaps deliberately, a British (false, by the way) stereotype for insistence on decorum, Bashir drew particular attention to the fact that Jackson wore pajamas to one of his court hearings. As any mediocre lawyer might know, eccentricity might be an indicator of a problem, but isn't proof of criminal behavior.

At the end of the ABC show, in what Bashir himself might have described in UK tabloid language as a "bizarre twist" Barbara Walters, who DOES understand shades of gray, asked him what Jackson would be best remembered for. His list highlighted a singer who could "reach three octaves". Clearly, one octave is all you need for American network news.

My own recollection of Jackson, which just proves how old I am, way precedes "Thriller". Its a song called "One Day in Your Life", Number One in the UK singles charts in June, 1981, which captures the age of his innocence; an "in-the-moment" joy which, whatever the truth of his subsequent illnesses, Jackson wished for all young people all his life. After all, he was deprived of his own childhood, which might explain everything in time.

ABC News, and the others, for that matter, would better serve and interest the public by looking at the wider picture this tragic story might reveal. About childhood, poverty, greed, loneliness, fame, flunkies, tabloids, prescription drugs, and the entertainment business's self-destructive nature. But then, its cheaper to run old B-Roll of alleged confessions and dance routines.

Iran Western Reporter Update

The BBC's veteran foreign correspondent John Leyne has also been "asked to leave". John isn't one to get himself theatrically arrested (unlike some foreign reporters), he and his managers probably concluded it would be in his listeners' and viewers' interests for him to try to "play the game" and report what he could report from his Tehran base given the circumstances. Or maybe he dared to venture out? Indeed the BBC have said they'll keep their Tehran office open.

But apparently the UK Government has annoyed the Iranians to such an extent that he had to go.

Two interesting things here.

Firstly, it shows the extent to which the regime is monitoring respected foreign reporting which is listened-to and watched extensively within Iran itself. It will be significant to see what this does to the thousands of Iranians who listen to the BBC World Service radio and its much interfered-with Persian TV service.

Second, it demonstrates the level of paranoia the regime has about the conclusions westerners are reaching about events on the Iranian streets. I can't imagine it will endear the regime to the millions of Iranians who cherish free speech and consume the BBC, Voice of America, and the myriad social media available to them.

Keeping the story alive without reporters

NBC's Tehran bureau chief, Ali Arouzi, appeared live on Meet the Press today and told David Gregory that although they were still not permitted to cover the rallies there were (so far) no restrictions on what they could say. With CNN covering the story from the US and London and giving extensive coverage to YouTube videos and Twitter, it was strangely reassuring to see a live journalist against a Tehran back-drop, even if he is basically confined to barracks. Presumably, NBC will be well-placed to grab the first pictures if the ban is lifted. Those news organizations who've withdrawn to Europe or elsewhere in the Middle East will face a long delay in resuming their own newsgathering process. Meanwhile, it remains perilous for western journalists and their local employees to venture onto the Tehran streets. Already, the BBC's John Simpson and his cameraman have been arrested, NBC's Richard Engel has been deported, and there are stories tonight about the disappearance of a photographer for Life Magazine, and the arrest of a Newsweek journalist. Margaret Thatcher used to speak of depriving the Irish Republican Army of the "Oxygen of Publicity." This is clearly the Iranian regime's strategy, but they haven't banked on social media and the internet, which in spite of its rumor-driven propensity and knee-jerk nature, is keeping the story alive in the west. The challenge for the networks there is decyphering the genuine videos and tweets from the fakes, and trying to avoid scurilous rumor. "Trust but verify" was never so poignant.

Getting arrested, and telling the story......

AS USUAL, THESE ARE MARK'S VIEWS ALONE. NOT HIS EMPLOYERS' VIEWS.

A very distinguished journalist and former colleague of mine, John Simpson, the BBC's Foreign Editor, managed to get arrested over the weekend in Tehran trying to cover the protests. This wouldn't have scared John. In fact, he always relished an event which promoted his profile. But he's a dedicated public service broadcaster with few rivals, and he's been arrested so many times in so many countries he's probably lost count.

And immediately following his release, he made sure his team's filming was more "covert", and the BBC News coverage of the aftermath of the Iranian election, and the vote-counting process which more befitted the books of a corrupt and clinging Wall Street derivatives trader than a national electoral system, was the best available in America.

For the record, both WETA and WHUT in Washington carried his accounts. I turned to CNN tonight and, as usual, Wolf had a lot of scary scenes graphically recreated in the studio behind him, but all the footage (B-Roll) they showed was from the 1979 uprising. CNN has many courageous reporters, too (Christiane Amanpour is one) and so do the networks.

But let's hope the TV and Radio network accountants don't pull the plug on this story, possibly the most significant political change on foreign shores since the overthrow of Communism.

Do the TV Networks, and NPR, still have the resources, news judgment, or commitment to events abroad?

As usual, a generation yearns to be educated. And I don't mean the Iranians......